Language Curriculum Design

Crystal-clear and comprehensive yet concise, this text describes the steps involved in the curriculum design process, elaborates and justifies these steps, and provides opportunities for practicing and applying them. The description of the steps is done at a general level so that they can be applied in a wide range of particular circumstances. The process comes to life through plentiful examples of actual applications of the steps. Each chapter includes: examples from the authors’ experience and from published research tasks that encourage readers to relate the steps to their own experience case studies and suggestions for further reading that put readers in touch with others’ experience Curriculum, or course, design is largely a 'how-to-do-it' activity that involves the integration of knowledge from many of the areas in the field of Applied Linguistics, such as language acquisition research, teaching methodology, assessment, language description, and materials production. Combining sound research/theory with state-of-the-art practice, Language Curriculum Design is widely applicable for ESL/EFL language education courses around the world.

Table of Contents:
Preface CHAPTER 1 LANGUAGE CURRICULUM DESIGN: AN OVERVIEW Parts of the curriculum design process Considering the environment Discovering needs Following principles Goals Content and sequencing Finding a format and presenting material Monitoring and assessing Evaluating a course Tasks 1 Examining a published course 2 Using the parts of the model to overview the planning of a course Case studies CHAPTER 2 ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS An example of environment analysis Environment constraints Understanding the constraints The constraint of time Steps in environment analysis Tasks 1 The range of constraints 2 Examining your teaching environment Case studies CHAPTER 3 NEEDS ANALYSIS The various focuses of needs analysis Discovering needs Needs analysis tools Evaluating needs analysis Issues in needs analysis Tasks 1 Needs analysis for a writing course 2 Evaluating a needs analysis scheme 3 Discovering needs Case studies CHAPTER 4 PRINCIPLES Methods and principles The twenty principles Selection Gradation Presentation Using the list of principles Case studies Tasks 1 Applying principles 2 Teachability hypothesis Case studies CHAPTER 5 GOALS, CONTENT AND SEQUENCING Guidelines for deciding or checking the content and sequencing of a course Goals and content The units of progression in a course What will the progression be used for? Vocabulary Grammar Functions Discourse Skills, subskills and strategies Ideas Task based syllabuses Sequencing the content in courses Linear approaches to sequencing A modular approach to sequencing Tasks 1 Verb form coverage in beginners' course books 2 The ideas content of a course 3 Describing the goals of a course Case studies CHAPTER 6 FORMAT AND PRESENTATION Format and other parts of the curriculum design process Guidelines for deciding on a format Following a set format Blocks and threads Techniques and activities Tasks 1 Examining the format of a lesson 2 Examining teaching techniques Case studies CHAPTER 7 MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT Guidelines for monitoring and assessment Types of monitoring and assessment Placement assessment Observation of learning Short term achievement assessment Diagnostic assessment Achievement assessment Proficiency assessment Good assessment: reliability, validity and practicality Tasks 1 Planning the assessment in a course 2 Evaluating a test Case studies CHAPTER 8 EVALUATION What is an evaluation? Steps in an evaluation Purpose and audience of evaluation The type and focus of the evaluation Gaining support for the evaluation Gathering the information Formative evaluation as a part of a course The results of an evaluation Tasks 1 Focus of evaluation 2 An evaluation checklist 3 An evaluation plan Case studies CHAPTER 9 APPROACHES TO CURRICULUM DESIGN Models of curriculum design Doing curriculum design Starting points The process of curriculum design Deciding on an approach Summary of the steps Tasks 1 Your curriculum design process 2 Choosing an appropriate approach Case studies CHAPTER 10 NEGOTIATED SYLLABUSES Negotiated syllabuses An example of a negotiated syllabus Requirements for a negotiated syllabus Syllabuses with some elements negotiated Disadvantages and advantages of a negotiated syllabus Tasks 1 Problems in implementing a negotiated syllabus 2 Partly negotiated syllabuses 3 Developing a negotiated approach to syllabus design Case studies CHAPTER 11 ADOPTING AND ADAPTING AN EXISTING COURSE BOOK The course book, the learners and the teacher Dividing the parts of the process Strong reliance on the course book with minimal adaptation Adapting a course book Using source books instead of course books Using computers and the internet Evaluating a course book Essential features: reducing the list of possible books Choosing and weighting the features Evaluating the evaluation forms Presenting the results Tasks 1 Designing a course book evaluation form 2 Evaluating a course book 3 Course book evaluation schedules 4 Using a course book Case studies CHAPTER 12 INTRODUCING CHANGE Steps in introducing change Seeing the need for change Deciding on the size of the change Realistic change Using a variety of change strategies Innovation, management and long term support Tasks 1 Change that failed 2 Change in a school's program Case studies CHAPTER 13 PLANNING AN IN-SERVICE COURSE Features of an effective workshop Procedures and activities for reaching the goals Understanding and remembering ideas Experiencing and evaluating Making material Planning lessons and units of work Problem solving Sequencing the components of a workshop Evaluating workshops Tasks 1 Principles for in-service courses 2 Designing an in-service course Case studies CHAPTER 14 TEACHING AND CURRICULUM DESIGN Environment analysis Needs analysis Principles Goals Content and sequencing Format and presentation Monitoring and assessment Evaluation Curriculum design and learner autonomy   APPENDICES 1 A verb form frequency count REFERENCES INDEX